Review of Shiki

As the Sun sets below the mountain peaks, the rural village is masked completely in an inescapable darkness. Silent. Untouched. Tranquil. Unknown to them, the horrors that lurk outside, the villagers sleep on in blissful ignorance, as the creatures of the night gather in the confines of the woods. Darkness is broken; tranquilly smashed, to the sudden crimson red glow of eyes, illuminating the area with the red allure of blood. The Shiki have arrived for their next meal... Horror and anime are rarely synonymous with one another, and, despite the medium barely producing anything horror related to begin with, the few horror titles thatare out there don't exactly evoke fear in me. They either become unintentional comedies, such as in the case of Another, a show that took itself way too seriously, featuring the plot of a B-movie, while I laughed my ass off at every single stupid plot revelation and death (as I type these words, I feel more like a sociopath since I keep repeating the scene of the girl falling down a flight of stairs unto an umbrella, with it piercing her throat, as I chuckle to myself in amusement), or the character designs for the show are too distracting for me to take seriously and end up ruining the horror elements, such as in the Higurashi series. The only anime that has ever actually lulled me into a state of fear is Shiki, a show way back from 2010, and is one of the few vampire-esque anime I can think of that doesn't use their vampires for yaoi fanservice (although to be fair, Shiki does feature some hella pretty boys!) However, while excelling in the audio-visual department to create a genuinely creepy atmosphere, Shiki's narrative is less than stellar unfortunately, reducing it more so from a show with themes about morality in regards to the idea of survival and human instinct, to instead that of a campy B-movie, with a finale that is an absolute bloodbath, reminiscent of the level of gore found in 90s OVAs! Anyway, I've talked for too long now. Let's grab our stakes, our torches, and slaughter some Shiki!

During a particularly hot summer in a rural, isolated village in Japan, a young, 15-year-old girl dreams of a glamorous life in the city, free from the hardships that come from living in the countryside, until she mysteriously dies, causing a stir in the once quiet community. This subsequently triggers a series of mysterious deaths within the village, which just so happens to coincide with the arrival of a new family by the name of the Kirishikis (no surprise, that, from their name, this family are indeed the "Shiki", the family of vampires who have been indulging in the blood of the villagers). As this unknown epidemic begins to take more and more lives, the town's doctor slowly loses his own humanity in order to solve this mystery, and to discover the true intent behind the new family's arrival!

One can divide Shiki's narrative into three main arcs. The first arc in which the villagers attempt to learn what this epidemic actually is, and what is causing all of this death, mainly serving to slowly build tension and atmosphere, the second arc in which we see the Shiki transforming other people into vampires (or killing them, as the viewer learns that when bitten, some turn into Shiki themselves, or just simply die), and the battle between the humans and Shiki for survival right at the very end. While this concept does sound good paper, it's execution leaves a lot to be desired.

For starters, Shiki's pacing, especially at the beginning, is rather slow and tiresome, although the slow pacing can perhaps be argued as a positive element as it helps to build narrative tension, resulting in a rather fun payoff, and helps to create more mystery surrounding the Shiki themselves. Not only that, but the setting of the narrative complements this idea. Since it is set in a rural village, deep into the mountains, it creates a feeling of paranoia and isolation, which only grows more and more as the episodes go along, so the pacing is important in establishing atmosphere. However, the slower nature of the show always came across as more aggravating to me, than anything else, since many of the characters are stupid beyond belief! While the villagers originally believed that the cause of these deaths was that of Mosquito bites, it takes them a rather long time to figure out that Mostiquto bites do not come in pairs, nor are their bites always at the same distance from one another. Of course, I'm not expecting them to jump to the conclusion immediately that vampires are indeed behind this, since that seems rather far-fetched and silly to assume in reality, but the amount of time they spend on the Mosquito bite theory is truly annoying, since, we, as an audience, already know what is happening and just want the plot to actually go somewhere. The narrative attempts to try and hide the fact that the Shiki are vampires and slowly stretches out the answer, which, not only ruins any chance people may have of possibly re-watching the series since the revelation is so obvious, but it can also be rather tedious to watch. Hell, Stevie Wonder could have figured it out before these guys could!

Another problem the narrative faces is the sheer amount of characters introduced, and the lack of much time to flesh out anybody, making it hard to remember who is who. That's not to say that there aren't some decent characters, however. Take, for example, the doctor who I mentioned before, Ozaki, who is the only character actively trying to discover the secrets plaguing his village! Ozaki's transition of losing his humanity for the survival of the villagers is easily one of the most interesting parts of the show. We see him slowly transform from man to monster and this is handled well enough to never feel forced; the transition feels natural and well-paced taking its time throughout the duration of the early parts of the series as we see this man become more and more obsessed with finding the truth. As such, it makes for an interesting character study of a man's internal turmoils regarding ethics and survival. Another somewhat interesting character is the leader, so to speak, of the Shiki, a young girl (only in appearance mind you!) called Sunako, whose back-story was actually pretty interesting and was enough to somewhat justify why she acts the way she does, which helped me greatly in being able to sympathise with her and her struggles. Her character allows the viewer to understand the Shiki and their way of life, as well as the inherent hardships that come along with it. She brings attention the idea that the Shiki have no choice but to kill the humans for their survival otherwise risk being killed themselves, bringing forth interesting ideas about how ethics and morality change dependent on the context in which one views it from.

The rest of the cast, however, were just really unlikable, and I honestly didn't care if most of the cast survived or died. The worst example is a girl called Megumi, who I mentioned at the very start of the review, and was the first person to "die". I put die in inverted commas, because, even though she did technically die, she came back as a Shiki. While the other characters who do come back as such are played out in a tragic way, represented more so as victims of circumstance, and while Megumi falls under this to a certain extent, she takes active pleasure and delight in killing the humans with very little justification as to why she would do this, aside from, perhaps, because she had a crush on a guy who paid her no attention, as we are told in the fourth episode of the show. By the time she inevitably kicks the bucket, the show tries to convey it as a tragedy and expects us to feel sorry for this twat, which doesn't work since she had been such a horrible person the entire time. It's this sudden juxtaposition in victimisation that rubs me the wrong way and is present a lot in the show. Every time a character in Shiki does die, they expect me to be sad, through the use of victimising them, instead of actually building up a character I can care for; it feels more cheap and lazy if anything else.

It's hard to care about the tragedy in the narrative since most characters acted like idiots, and got what they deserved, with the humans killing their reborn loved ones, without any remorse or sympathy. The show tries to convey the idea of who the real monsters in the show actually are: the humans or the Shiki themselves, but since each bunch of characters are so unlikable, I didn't give a damn really. In order for this tragic story to work, we needed to have characters in which the audience could care about as actual people, instead of the cheap victimisation the show utilises to try and manipulate us into feeling something for these cardboard cut-outs. That's not to say that the show is completely devoid of emotion, however, since it is effective in one or two places. One such example is in the first episode of the Shiki OVA, but the scene was mostly enhanced by the music and voice acting than the actual writing itself. It's not as bad as some of the other moments in the show, like Megumi's final scene which uses cheap writing, since, in the OVA scene, Nao's character, a human turned Shiki, is given time for one to learn about her ordeals and regrets at being a Shiki, while being tormented by those in which she has killed out her hunger, which actually results in a very emotional moment. If the show had more scenes like this, it would have improved the overall.

As a spectacle, however, Shiki is entertaining as hell! The bloodbath at the end of the series is extremely entertaining to watch unfold and is pure blood-shed, fan-service in its purest form! Not only that, but the music and the atmosphere this show evokes is fantastic! Each track is eerily creepy or heart-wrenchingly sad, enhancing each scene wonderfully. My favourite tracks being "Day and Night", "SHI-KI" and "Requiem". The two openings end endings are also of a pretty high quality, with both openings representing their respective story arcs very well. As a fan of horror, Shiki was a treat to watch, and there were many scenes in the early parts of the series that were handled with a lot of care and made me feel genuinely frightened. The best example of such is the ending scene of episode four, where we see Megumi, now a Shiki, stalk her crush, one of the other main characters by the name of Yuuki, who is staying over at his friend's house. The scene builds tension perfectly, and, after both we and Yuuki let our guard down as we believe we are safe from Megumi, she appears from underneath the bed, sliding and twisting her body; the sounds of bones and joints clicking into place, her cold crimson red eyes staring directly at both us, and Yuki. Everything about the scene is intensely disturbing and creepy and has stayed as a vivid image in my subconscious for years to come, and there are many other scenes like this too! Visually, Shiki is consistent but also pretty bizarre in terms of its character designs, with each character having insanely strange hairdos; it feels pretty gothic-like, which is something I can always dig; it's like a romanticised version of Bram Stocker's classic novel.

When it comes down to it, Shiki is a fun show to watch due to the sheer amount of blood and death, while genuinely creating a horrific atmosphere all the while featuring an amazing original soundtrack. However, the script falters in many areas, unfortunately, and aside from maybe two or three characters, I didn't care for the rest of the cast at all. It's one of those shows you watch for the spectacle of it alone, rather than a well-written narrative or developed characters, and I certainly believe Shiki achieves its goal on that end. While its use of victimisation to make the audience feel for a character that hasn't been built up is not as bad as other shows I have talked about before, such as Elfen Lied, it does feel somewhat lazy and cheap to do so, but, despite all that, I still had fun watching the show, and I believe that's important. Shiki, to me at least, was fun! It's shlocky, sure, but watching Shiki, especially for the final third, is an incredibly enjoyable time, and for that, I'd recommend giving the show a shot!